Washington’s Stocking Stuffers
The Capital City’s Corruption is Complete!
The colorful wrapping paper and bright bows had been thrown away, and the trees have come down. So, let’s see what the Washington people gave themselves with your money this Christmas.
As we survey their stocking stuffers, remember that the end days of any republic are a good time to own gold. That’s because the governing classes, the power centers, and the cronies steal everything that is not nailed down. And they always debauch the currency – the people’s money, your money – to pay for it.
Here’s one: Besides the 87,000 new armed IRS agents, Congress is now appropriating money for the IRS Commissioner to have a chauffeur.
Great!
There is a $45 billion new gift under the tree for Ukraine. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says these appropriations are good for America’s economy because they create American jobs: “These investments will help expand our defense manufacturing capacity and contribute to an industry that supports high-paying American jobs.”
This is typical of the economic confusion that characterizes Washington. Without that appropriation, the $45 billion would remain in the pockets of Americans who would spend it on things that actually make their lives better. McConnell’s work only takes money from the people at large to give to well-connected cronies who can be counted on to make generous campaign contributions to people like… well, people like Mitch McConnell.
So here are some of the other goodies they gave themselves in the year-end omnibus bill, as reported by the always-alert Jim Bovard in a New York Post article.
- “Monuments to Me” in the bill commemorate politicians’ generosity with other people’s money — including the “Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building” in San Francisco and the “Nancy Pelosi Fellowship Program” for the State Department. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) finagled his name onto the Patrick Leahy Lake Champlain Basin Program. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) also got his name on an FBI training facility even though “almost everything in Alabama is already named after him,” according to Scott Parkinson of the Club for Growth.
- $3.6 million for the Michelle Obama Trail in DeKalb, Ga. Perhaps the four-mile trail will be a consolation prize for Michelle after her signature “Let’s Move” campaign dismally failed to end childhood obesity.
- $200 billion is budgeted for the Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund, part of President Biden’s glorious worldwide crusade for the rights of females. Will that program include sending condolence cards to the women of Afghanistan? Or maybe all the money will be fizzled for zany projects like “Women’s Economic Empowerment through Gender Sensitive Value Chain Interventions” in Albania.
- The bill provides massive subsidies to encourage the continuing tidal wave of illegal immigration while banning spending any funds “to construct border fencing in certain areas,” according to the Heritage Foundation. While scoffing at safeguarding the US border, Congress is sending $410 million for “enhanced border security” to Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Oman, according to Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC).
- Congress is dolloping out $1.5 million for the COVID-19 American History Project. That program is more likely to have rows of Anthony Fauci Bobbleheads than to include the sordid details of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health browbeating Twitter to censor critics who exposed the deceits of federal policymakers.
Brovard also points out that “to fill the fearmongering void caused by Fauci’s retirement, the omnibus bill creates a new White House pandemic czar.”
Just what we need!
So, it is always a Merry Christmas for Washington’s cronies. As for us, we can see the dollar going up in smoke, and we will be buying more gold and silver in the New Year!